Quicker ride across border

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This article was published 21/12/2011 (5423 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CENTREPORT Canada is looking to set up one of the first technology pilot projects in Canada that will attempt to increase efficiency and enhance security for cross-border cargo shipments.

The idea is to develop a system with the highest standards in security and high-tech cargo tracking to expedite processing and secure handling of goods across the border.

Intelligent transportation systems is a concept that has been around for awhile, but the search for the rights systems and technology recently got a big push with the signing of the Beyond the Border agreement signed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama.

The federal and provincial governments will kick in $75,000 and $65,000 respectively, sharing the costs with CentrePort Canada for a $240,000 study, already underway, to come up with recommendations for how a cargo pre-clearance system could work.

“Ultimately what I would like to be able to do is position ourselves to have a facility away from the border that would allow for pre-inspection of agricultural products and other components that would ultimately lead to pre-clearance,” Diane Gray, CEO of CentrePort, said Tuesday.

“The border does not go away. But if you can move the inspection back from the border, you can fast-track the timing. But you need technology to secure the freight.”

CentrePort has hired Civitus Group, a Washington, D.C., consultancy specializing in homeland security, to conduct the study. Among other things, it will look at ways other inland ports around the world have used intelligent transportation systems.

Don Streuber, CEO of Bison Transport, a Winnipeg trucking firm, said his company is all for systems that would allow goods to be shipped across the border without stopping. “We understand random stops will likely continue to occur under the premise of security, but randomness is quite different than 100 per cent stoppages of freight.”

CentrePort is already setting up Canada’s first single window foreign trade zone.

Steven Fletcher, minister of state for transport, said projects such as this one create more value out of the investments that are being made in CentrePort. “(It) represents the convergence of different modes of transportation,” he said. “But it also embodies the convergence of new ideas; government and private industry working together toward common goals.”

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, heightened security concerns have thickened the Canada-U.S. border, which sees the movement of $2 billion of goods daily. The project that CentrePort has commissioned will address both security and efficiencies.

“It still means inspection, it still means the border exists,” said Gray. “By using technology you would be able to certify that the product has been inspected and has not been tampered with so it can move across the board in a more efficient way,”

Gray cited the scenario for southern Manitoba livestock producers moving product into the Chicago market across the Emerson/Pembina border crossing.

It may be the busiest border crossing in Western Canada, but meat inspection is only available between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. A Monday morning delivery requires a border inspection on Friday.

“That means driver and equipment and product are in Chicago as early as Saturday, sitting and waiting for Monday morning delivery,” Gray said. “That’s inefficient in how equipment is handled and inefficient for personnel.”

Gray would not be pinned down on precisely what system is being looked at or when the study will be completed. She did say an inspection facility located on CentrePort’s 20,000-acre footprint near the airport could be part of the plan.

Manitoba Transportation Steve Ashton said these kinds of developments at CentrePort are revolutionary.

“Ten to 20 years from now, CentrePort will be seen as the single most visionary investment of this decade,” Ashton said.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca